Deep Cumulonimbus Cloud Systems in the Tropics with and without Lightning

Abstract

The thunderstorm frequency over the oceans during the Global Atmospheric Research Program Atlantic Tropical Experiment is quantified by examination of over 20 000 surface hourly observations from research ships. The overall thunderstorm frequency is one thunderstorm day per ship per month. There were many examples of intense mesoscale systems, such as squall lines, passing over the ships, extending to 13?17 km in altitude, but that nevertheless produce few reports of lightning. This reinforces the idea, based on data from other tropical ocean regions and from global satellite data, that in spite of the ubiquitous ?hot towers? over tropical oceans, marine cumulonimbus product little lightning. Climatological data from the monsoon regions of the Tropics are analyzed to reveal that during periods of onshore flow and heavy rainfall the oceanic regime of high rainfall but little lightning moves onshore. A rain-thunderstorm ratio is defined and used to characterize convective rainfall regimes as continental (relatively little) or maritime (relatively great) rainfall compared to the number of thunderstorm days. In regions such as West Africa and south Asia, the seasonal rainfall peak is actually accompanied by a thunderstorm minimum. It is further suggested that the data support the idea, not original here, that vertical velocities in oceanic cumulonimbus clouds tend to be low compared with continental clouds. Radar data from the companion paper in this issue are also consistent with this idea. It is hypothesized that most oceanic storms have updrafts weaker than a possible threshold value, below which the supercooled liquid water, large ice particles, and ice-ice collisions are not present in the mixed-phase region in sufficient concentrations for electrification leading to lightning.